A/N: I'm back everyone! *crickets chirping in the distance*. Well okay then..

Seriously though, I feel really bad about not updating any of my stories for so long. I've had a lot of stuff going on in my personal life and it's kinda taken a toll on my inspiration to write.

Not to mention that the ending of the Tartaros arc kinda spun everything that I (thought I) knew about Fairy Tail ass backwards.. this is about the only story I currently have posted that hasn't had its plot spun in complete circles since then. With that being said, I do have a few one shots and a couple new stories that are all almost ready to be posted, along with a few updates for older stories. Shameless advertising aside, I also have a tumblr account now, and I really have no idea how to use it, so help with that would be cool (hint hint, follow me ;).

Anyway, no one clicked on this to read a long winded authors note, so remember that reviews, favorites, and follows are always appreciated, so lets get on with it.

...

The morning sun shone bright on the voyagers as they mingled on the deck of the ship, everyone on lookout for the Tower of Heaven. The crew had sailed through the night on course for a magical signal that they thought would be the tower. "Hey Bacchus. You're the captain, right?" Gray asked from his perch on the upper deck, sitting with his legs hanging over the doors that led into the lower quarters.

Bacchus let out a hearty laugh as he took another swig of his morning rum. "Since Master Goldmine isn't here right now, I guess that would make me the captain, now wouldn't it?" He asked the rest of the crew in a slur. "It's WILD!"

"FOUR!"

'Great, our captain is drunk at eight in the morning' Gray thought sarcastically. "Alright then, so how much longer before we reach this tower?"

"Should reach it by sunset if we keep this pace up" Bacchus smiled. "You in a hurry or something?"

"Nah" Gray shrugged. "It'd just be nice to get this done for my brother. Maybe then he'll quit nagging me about my responsibilities and whatnot."

"Your brother is the king, right?" Bacchus asked.

"Somewhat, yes" Gray muttered. Bacchus looked extremely confused.

"What do you mean somewhat? He's somewhat the king or he's somewhat your brother?" Gray breathed out a sigh at his slip up, knowing he'd have to explain.

"After Ur, our last queen obviously, had her first child, she was in an accident that left her infertile." Bacchus winced at the thought of something like that happening, slowly sliding his hand down to protect his manhood from anything of the sort. "Anyways, her husband had died in the same accident. It was some sort of vehicular accident, but dad never mentioned the details. And her daughter died due to medical complications a short time later."

"That's... fucking terrible man" Bacchus frowned at the thought of what that must do to a person. "So where do you and Lyon fit into this."

"Ur took Lyon in, along with the Princess Merudy some time later. But Merudy wasn't until after me and my father entered the picture." Gray took a second to collect his breath as the emotions from the repressed memories of his childhood began to surface. "Both of Lyon's parents were killed by the demon Deliora, along with my mother." Bacchus raised his hand to interject. "What?"

"This might sound like a stupid question, but who would name a country after a demon?" Gray actually laughed at this.

"Dude, are you really that shitfaced or are you just that ignorant?" Gray let out a groan at Bacchus's dumbfounded expression before he answered the question. "The demon was named after the country after all the destruction and terror it caused." Bacchus seemed to understand as he gave him a nod. "Anyways, my father and I travelled the country until we wound up in the Capitol, where my father and Ur met and later married. I think I was about ten at the time, so Lyon and I spent the majority of our childhood together."

"So you two were raised as brothers then?"

"Basically, yes" Gray answered.

"Man. That's a wild story." Gray nodded his head at him before turning and walking back to his cabin.

"Come get me when we're at the tower. I wanna make sure I'm well rested for whatever this place is gonna throw at us."

...

"Wake up. Gray. Wake up!" Erza shouted as she shook the man. The prince slowly stirred in his sleep as he shut his eyes again. "Gray" she said again, causing the raven haired man to shoot his head off the pillow, promptly flipping the woman off, and slammed his head back onto the pillow, falling back into a slumber. Erza yanked the sheets out from under him in a fit of rage, causing the man to fall to the ground.

"I'm awake!" Gray shouted in what still appeared to be a half dazed state.

"Good" she reverted back to her usual calm demeanor. "We'll be arriving shortly." Gray let out a huff as he strapped his armor on and attached his sword to his hip.

"Remind me again why I agreed to this?"

"Because you love your brother?" Erza asked.

"Yeah, sure" Gray mumbled as he walked out toward the deck. "Holy shit!" He yelled when he looked off into the distance, the huge form of the tower peaking in the distance. "That's it? It's huge!"

"Well, it is a tower, Gray. I didn't expect it to be small."

"Yeah, well." Gray seemed to take in what she said, and calmly took in the ocean view leading up to the tower. "I'm guessing we're gonna have to climb up that big ass thing, since she's probably in some sort of locked chamber up at the top."

"You read too much cliche fiction Gray. She's probably locked in a dungeon below the tower" Erza affirmed.

"The dungeons are where they keep the prisoners, not the princesses. And you read more than I do, how do you not know that?" Erza blushed furiously at Gray's statement, recalling the 'nature' of the books that she liked to read. "Erza? Hey, snap out of it!"

Gray shook her quickly, snapping her out of her stupor. "We'll split up then. I'll prove to you that I'm right!"

"Whatever you say captain. Though I really don't think that it's a good idea to split up with a dragon on the loose."

"We don't know if there really is a dragon there to begin with, but just think about this for a minute" Erza reasoned. "Dragons are huge, and they have wings. Now, would a giant winged reptile really want to make its nest in the basement of the huge tower? Or do you think it would be more comfortable towards the top where it could fly freely?" Gray's mouth hung open as he found it very hard to refute her logical assessment of the situation as the boat docked at the base of the tower. "Have a safe climb up, Prince."

...

'Stupid Erza' Gray thought to himself as he tripped on another rock along his painfully long ascension of the steep structure. In all reality he should have forced Erza to carry him all the way up the tower, abuse of power cries be damned. Seriously though, he was pretty sure that she would have been forced to oblige due to the bullshit oath that the kingdom forces upon its knights.

The thought brought a smirk to the raven haired man's face as he thought of all the ways he could punish Erza when they got back to the Capitol. It was a soothing thought along this painfully boring journey up the tower. There wasn't even anything for him to focus on as far as sight goes. All there was were stone walls and boring torchlights that made everything look old and decrepit. How a princess could live in such a place he could never understand. Hell, he didn't even know how rats could manage to survive here. That was a thought that sickened him as he tripped over another piece of jagged stone and fell to the ground.

Right now he was kind of glad Erza ditched him to go through the dungeons looking for this Lucy girl because he was positive she would be teasing him about wearing his new feet today. However, the solace that he received from that thought was quickly replaced with irritation that he was sure the echoes in the hallway from him falling were just the pieces of stone laughing at him. The shadows on the walls looked like really creepy serial killer smiles as well.

Maybe he really was going crazy. 'Best not to think about it' he decided. After about fifteen more minutes of ascention, he finally came across a shiny wooden door at the end of the hallway. 'So this is it, huh?' Without even knocking, he turned the handle and opened the door.

Before he could register what was happening, everything went black.

It took him a second to realize what had happened, but a familiar musty smell filled his nostrils. Reaching for his face, his suspicions were confirmed when he pulled a book off of his face. 'The hell?'

"Damnit Natsu, what have I told you about coming into my room without knocking?" Gray pulled the book off of his face to see the woman who had thrown the object at him.

"Are you Lucy Heartfillia?" Gray asked the woman standing before him. He noticed she had long blond hair and brown eyes among other, assets, that were barely covered by a blue bathrobe.

"Yes. And who the hell are you barging into my room like this?" Gray scurried backward a little, taken aback by the demeanor of the blond as he stuck his hand out.

"Gray Fullbuster, Prince of Deliora at your service" he said meekly. Lucy's eyes grew wide at the mention of his title.

'Prince?' she thought as she quickly helped him up from the floor. "So what are you doing in a place like this?"

"Isn't it obvious? I came here to take you back to the kingdom with me." Lucy's face turned beet red.

'He came for me? Is he gonna sweep me up and carry me bridal style out of the tower to my new life? I wonder if he has a grand yacht waiting outside? Or a flying Pegasus. And we'd share our first kiss under the moonlit sky. And-'

"What the hell are you doing?" Gray's voice broke her from her thoughts. "Come on, we haven't got all day." Lucy's mouth was gaping.

"You're so rude! Aren't you supposed to try and woo the princess or something instead of being a jerk?"

"Well if I keep my brother waiting any longer than he needs to then he'll probably try to behead me or something. So I'll save the wooing for him when we get back to the kingdom."

"What do you mean your brother? You mean to tell me that you're not even rescuing me for yourself? What are you even doing here then? And where's your kingdom at anyway?" Gray slammed his face into his hand.

"You realize that you ask a lot of questions?" Lucy looked at him sideways.

"Do I?"

"Yes!" Gray shouted. "Look, I'll explain everything when we get to the ship. Just hurry up, okay."

"Can I at least pack a bag first? I have a lot of stuff here." Lucy opened her closet to reveal an extensive wardrobe.

"What the hell do you need all those clothes for? Seriously, who are you trying to impress here?"

"Oh, now who's asking all the questions?"

"Wasn't that a question?"

"Yes, but so was that." Gray grumbled in frustration before walking toward her wardrobe. Raising his hands, all her clothes in the closet vanished. "What the hell was that? You just happen to have some sort of magic that causes girls' clothes to disappear? Pervert!"

"It's a form of exquip magic. One of the captains in our army taught it to me so I wouldn't have a ton of luggage to haul around on trips like this. Speaking of which" a smile grew on Gray's face until Lucy shrieked.

"Why are you naked!"

"Oh crap!" A blue glow surrounded Gray as he requipped back into his armor and coat. "Well, now that that's out of the way, I have to go find Erza and tell her I was right!"

"Who's Erza?" Lucy asked.

"The captain who taught me requip magic. We had a bet about where you were and I was right that you were at the top of the tower, which means Erza's in the basement fighting.. the.. dragon" Gray trailed off. "Shit, we need to go!"